We have a document library that has files which get reassigned to different users, with the "assigned to" column, and we want someone to get notified automatically when a document is assigned to them - do I need to create a workflow that monitors this in some way and then emails that user, or use a task list? I'm having trouble figuring out how to do this. A document may be uploaded and not have anyone assigned to it, then get assigned to multiple people before it is complete, at which point the assigned to field is set to blank.
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Is a workflow needed for this? 1
- Thread starter lucasm
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- #2
Hello,
A workflow is basically just what the name implies, flow of work. Now, unless you plan to maintain the status of who is assigned which document manually, which implies work, you should consider a workflow to handle the work for you.
So technically you do not need a workflow, but practically you probably should.
That being said, if you only need to email someone when an item is assigned to them but want to do the actual assignment manually you can do this with an event receiver.
I have a business process management for SharePoint article series in my blog that might help you along, whether you opt for a workflow or an event receiver:
SharePoint Designer Workflow
SharePoint Event Handlers
Visual Studio Workflows
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
A workflow is basically just what the name implies, flow of work. Now, unless you plan to maintain the status of who is assigned which document manually, which implies work, you should consider a workflow to handle the work for you.
So technically you do not need a workflow, but practically you probably should.
That being said, if you only need to email someone when an item is assigned to them but want to do the actual assignment manually you can do this with an event receiver.
I have a business process management for SharePoint article series in my blog that might help you along, whether you opt for a workflow or an event receiver:
SharePoint Designer Workflow
SharePoint Event Handlers
Visual Studio Workflows
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
- Thread starter
- #3
It seems like (using the built-in capabilities of sharepoint/sharepoint designer)I should be able to make it so that when the "assigned to" field for a document is changed to any user's name, they are emailed either a custom message, or assigned a task in a task list. I'm just trying to figure out how to capture that change event. Maybe have a workflow start every time the document changes, and only have it do something if the "assigned to" field has changed (how to figure this out?), otherwise the workflow terminates.
- Thread starter
- #4
now I'm thinking the workflow can run every time document changes, check to see if there is an active task assigned for that document&user (a calculated unique ID field based on the doc name and assigned user name), and then assign one if not - to avoid having a duplicate task created each time the document is modified and the assigned user remains the same. Now I just have to figure out how to do that.
Hello,
As I have told you already, a feature receiver will do exactly what you want. You may or may not need to develop a workflow, but to just send an email to a person when an item changes you just need a feature receiver.
By the way, Lee, you should inform people that you work for the developer of those boost-things, rather than try to make it appear as some casual user is recommending the product.
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
As I have told you already, a feature receiver will do exactly what you want. You may or may not need to develop a workflow, but to just send an email to a person when an item changes you just need a feature receiver.
By the way, Lee, you should inform people that you work for the developer of those boost-things, rather than try to make it appear as some casual user is recommending the product.
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
- Thread starter
- #6
Ok, I don't have any experience with custom programming in visual studio - I've only done web page and scripting related programming in recent years: ASP, PHP, VBScript, etc. Hopefully my boss will tolerate the fact that I've got to do a bit more of learning on the job than I expected to get this working.
- Thread starter
- #7
I guess I want to create an event handler that duplicates the email notification action taken when a task is assigned to someone, and applies it to other classes of items, like when a document is assigned to someone. If only visual studio had a plain-english translation capability where I could describe what I want and it would spit out code.
Lucas: The plain-english translation capability exists. It is called 'consultant'. Most of the time it is simpler, cheaper, and a lot faster than trying to learn everything yourself.
In any case, if you have never developed anything before, taking on developing custom functionality does seem a bit risky. However, if you follow the tasks outlined in the articles I wrote earlier you should be able to handle the basics.
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
In any case, if you have never developed anything before, taking on developing custom functionality does seem a bit risky. However, if you follow the tasks outlined in the articles I wrote earlier you should be able to handle the basics.
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
- Thread starter
- #9
- Thread starter
- #10
Ok furuknap, I've been working off your "Send a SharePoint document library file as email" blog posting, and I am trying to figure out whether I should have MOSS and visual studio running on the same machine, or it is ok to do the coding on my workstation and deploy the solution to the server. I had to copy the Microsoft.Sharepoint.dll file over from the server to add that as a reference, and am wondering if everything will compile ok.
Hello,
SharePoint development should be done on a server. Get a free virtualization package such as VMWare Server or Virtual PC and get an evaluation version of W2K3 or W2K8 if you don't have technet or MSDN subscription.
There are solutions available for faking the development environment on Vista machines as well, but these are 'hacks' and your mileage will vary.
I highly recommend doing the virtual server development, though.
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
SharePoint development should be done on a server. Get a free virtualization package such as VMWare Server or Virtual PC and get an evaluation version of W2K3 or W2K8 if you don't have technet or MSDN subscription.
There are solutions available for faking the development environment on Vista machines as well, but these are 'hacks' and your mileage will vary.
I highly recommend doing the virtual server development, though.
.b
Blog for my upcoming SharePoint book
"Building the SharePoint User Experience":
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